Merits
Merits are all expressed as Name Of Merit (Cost in Merit Points). For buying merits with XP, simply pay 2 XP per the cost in points. New Merits Person of Action *'Desperate Zeal' (2) - Through faith or determination, once per session, you can reroll a failed roll. *'Pinpoint Anatomy' (2)- Roll an additional 1D4 damage whenever you impale in melee combat. *'Assassin' (3) - Whenever you take a victim completely unaware, your first attack automatically impales. This can only be used within melee range. *'Liminal' (1) - You have been touched by death before. When reduced below 0 HP, you may make a 1/4 LUK roll to cling to life. *'Archer's Dilemma '(2) - Double the range of any projectile weapon you have handled and tested before. This effect is cumulative with any and all other increases to range. *'Political Executioner' (3) - If making a long-range shot against a target who is completely unaware of you, you automatically impale. *'Combat Improv '(1) - With melee weapons, if using a weapon that is not your highest melee skill, average both skills and roll versus the result. Malfunction on a roll of 99 or 00. Additionally, you may use nonweapons as improvised weapons; for this, use whichever your highest weapon skill is. Improvised weapons will tend to break after just one or two hits. *'Swift Recovery '(4) - Whenever you are treated for an injury, improve the die type for recovering HP. This may not seem like much, but life is pain. *'Emergency Extraction' (3) - If you are bodily carrying an ally, you are able to act unhindered. You are also able to move very quickly to cover injured allies. *'Commando' (2) - Req: Giant merit, STR 14+ - Your great size and strength allow you to steadily burst-fire heavy automatic weapons without them being affixed to a bipod or permanent mount. Your strength also affords you the ability to belt-feed from an ammo box you are also carrying in some capacity, whether worn on the back or otherwise. *'Motojoust' (3) - Req: Ride 50%+, 50%+ in any melee weapon - You asshole. Maybe you've had a burst of inspiration or trained in jousting at your local SCA group; either way, whether riding a horse or a motorcycle add +1 for every 100 lbs of vehicle/horse weight (usually +6-8 for a motorcycle, +10-13 for a horse) to all damage when making melee attacks at full speed while riding. Employing this maneuver penalizes your attack roll by -30% unless you are using a chain, spear, or lance; additionally, regardless of weapon, it has a 50% chance of being destroyed or stuck in whomever you injure. Background/Skill Proficiency *'Seen Some Shit' (1) - Select a quality of your character's background. You resist 2 points of Sanity damage when facing sources of stress related to that. *'Done Some Shit' (1) - Select a stressor, such as a phobia. Encountering that stressor at all prompts a Sanity check and, if failed, damages Sanity significantly. Add 10% to rolls to resist all other forms of Sanity damage. *'Riot Cop '(1) - In the past, you were trained by riot control officers or were one yourself. You’re able to use or scavenge a personal shield with ease. Gain the Shield Use skill at its base rating of 2xSTR; you can also always spot an improvisable shield in your environment. *'Tank Girl/Boy '(1) - Somehow you’ve been trained in how to operate heavily armored military vehicles. Add 10% to Operate Heavy Machinery when piloting military vehicles. *'Soldier Boy/Girl' (2) - You’ve served in the military. Select two role appropriate skills and raise them by 20%. Unfortunately, the war left you far from okay. Every time you use those skills you have a 10% chance of having a flashback, causing sanity damage. *'Electric City '(1) - You have some knowledge of the city’s electric grid and the typical setup in most types of buildings, allowing you to locate and sabotage them (or repair it!) more easily than others. *'Misunderstood Sense of Humor '(1) - You take penalties whenever speaking with someone who doesn’t quite get what you meant, as people frequently find talking to you insulting despite your intent. -20% to attempts at diplomacy related actions, but +20% to all attempts to insult or incite anger in others. *'Courier Pigeon '(1) - You’re like a flying rat that occasionally has a message. Given your experience travelling around the city to deliver messages, you’re especially adept at planning efficient routes to avoid the police or other hazards, though people don’t find you terribly intimidating. *'Sewer Rat '(1) - You’ve spent a lot of time in the sewers, you freaking weirdo. You can use manholes to hide and escape pursuit, and get around the city without being harassed by anyone but the mole people and nosferatu. This perk does NOT protect you from the dangers of the sewer system, only makes you able to easily navigate it. *'He Who Stops Subways '(1) - You have a special relationship with the subway operators. They’ll stop the train if you ask them to, cite a mechanical issue. Good luck dealing with the horde of angry subway goers and the Guardian Angels who think you’re up to no good as a result, though. *'Pigeon '(1) - Authorities have cut a deal with you, rewarding information you provide on events that may interest them with money, extra Vitae, or certain other privileges. **'On A High Stool '(1) - And nobody knows about it. *'What? No! No, Seriously, No '(2) - You're a champ when it comes to defusing hostilities. As long as you're not on a faction's shit list, you can add Fast Talk to Persuade to encourage a single noteworthy or a posse to back down peacefully once per session. *'Pep Talk '(2) - You are able to substitute half-% Fast Talk or Persuade in place of Psychoanalysis to grant allies a chance to recover some Sanity. You cannot use this perk if you have suffered sanity loss recently. *'Jury-Rigging' (2) - character has used materials acquired privately and individual knowhow to construct a tool or device that is superior to others of its type. Character must have a sufficient sum of Electrical Repair or Mechanical Repair - or whatever other skill is relevant to the item's construction - to initially construct the item. **'Overtuning '(1) - character is able to significantly improve the qualities of the jury-rigged item. Devices may be overtuned repeatedly, applying different improvements each time. *'Go Baby Go Baby Go Baby Go '(2) - REQ: Computers, 50% or more. You've learned how to hack ATMs. You require a specific suite of components: Specifically, a handheld computing device, an IDE connector, and a card-shaped peripheral. Who needs finances when you can make it rain money? *'Amateur Arcanist' (4) - REQ: Occult, 50% or more, non-vampire. You are pretty sure you can handle this whole 'sorcery' thing. You no longer pay sanity to learn new spells; instead, you keep them in a book, and can freely know your POW in spells at a time. **'Semi-Pro Arcanist '(4) - REQ: Amateur Arcanist, Occult 75% or more. You only pay sanity when casting when you roll under 1/5 your skill. Furthermore, when this occurs, you effectively 'spell impale' - double all numerical effects of the spell being cast, if any. Unfortunately, this includes the sanity point cost of the spell. ***'Professional Arcanist' (4) - REQ: Semi-Pro Arcanist, Occult 90% or more. You may pay a 1d6 sanity points to 'heighten' a spell, adding 2d4 to any numerical effects it possesses. Both this enhancement and the sanity point cost are affected by a 'spell impale'. *'Blessed Be The Book Barn' (2) - REQ: Any mystical contacts in good standing. You can tap your mystical contacts to borrow or purchase spells. Converted WoD Merits Core Book Mental Merits *'Common Sense' (4) - You can usually be depended on to make sound, straightforward decisions after a moment’s consideration. The Storyteller can make a reflexive IDEA roll once per chapter for your character if something you’re doing isn’t so hot a prospect. This merit is available at character creation only. *'Danger Sense '(2) - You gain a +2 modifier on all rolls to detect an impending ambush or other surprise attack. *'Eidetic Memory' (2) - You have a near-photographic memory, able to recall vast amounts of observed detail with astonishing accuracy. Normally, you don’t need to roll for this; under stress, you have a +20% modifier to any academic skill checks or KNOW rolls. *'Encyclopedic Knowledge '(4) - You may make KNOW rolls for things usually outside of the realm of that characteristic, such as random elements from various academic skills. *'Holistic Awareness' (3) - When granting others medical care, so long as you directly supervise their recovery, if you succeed on your Medicine rolls each patient you supervise recovers health in half the normal time. *'Meditative Mind' (1) - You can effortlessly focus yourself, shutting out your environment. Whenever you meditate, increase SAN rolls by 10% for the next hour (or so). *'Unseen Sense '(3) - Req: Mortal, POW 12 - Select a specific supernatural phenomenon; ghosts, vampires, walking dead, et cetera. You instantly know when you are in that phenomenon’s presence or, at the storyteller’s discretion, when it has interacted with your current environment. You may not be able to describe the sensation or identify exactly what it is you’re feeling, but you have that gut feeling. Physical Merits *'Ambidextrous' (3) - You suffer no penalties for using your off-hand in combat or to perform other actions. Available at character creation only. *'Brawling Dodge' (1) - Req: STR 12, 50% Brawl - When rolling to Parry, if you are doing so with your bare hand and not making a Grapple-based parry, add 10% to the roll. *'Direction Sense' (1) - You can always orient yourself to the compass directions or retrace your steps back to your starting point when in unfamiliar territory. *'Disarm' (2) - Req: DEX 14, 50% in a hand weapon skill - When making a normal attack, if you hit, compare the damage rolled to your opponent’s DEX. If you exceed half of his DEX, you may opt to disarm him and deal no damage, tossing the weapon a distance equal to your damage rolled in meters. *'Fast Reflexes '(1 or 2) - Req: DEX 14 - For terms of determining initiative, add your rank in this merit to your DEX. *'Fighting Finesse' (2) - Req: DEX 14, 50% in a hand weapon skill - Calculate your melee DB for this weapon and only this weapon from STR+DEX or DEX+SIZ rather than STR+SIZ; choose the more favorable calculation. *'Fleet of Foot' (1-3) - Req: STR 12 - Add 5 per rank to the distance you can cover when jogging or running. *'Fresh Start' (1) - At any point in the order of initiative, you may declare to reorient yourself at that point, sacrificing your action this turn to cement yourself at that position in initiative next turn and onward. You may only move this turn, nothing else. *'Giant' (4) - You are massive. Increase SIZ by 3. For obvious reasons you may only buy this merit at character creation. This also permanently increases your maximum STR and CON by 1, though it has no direct impact on them now. *'Gunslinger' (2) - Req: DEX 14, Handgun 80% - Already able to accurately fire two pistols, you are practiced at reloading both pistols without having to surrender your grip on either. You may reload one pistol per hand without having to holster either in your action. *'Iron Stamina '(1-3) - Req: CON 14 - Each rank of this merit represents a degree of immunity to fatigue or injury. When pushing yourself beyond the limits of human endurance, you will accrue a debt of exhaustion; when you finally rest, you will be virtually impossible to rouse for at least twelve hours. *'Iron Stomach' (2) - Req: CON 12 - You can eat almost anything and not suffer for it. *'Natural Immunity' (1) - Req: CON 12 - You gain +20% to rolls to resist infection, sickness, and disease. *'Quick Draw' (1 or 2) - Select, when buying the first rank of this merit, firearms or melee weapons; you may draw and attack with that category of weapon instantly. At rank 2, you may do this with any weapon. *'Quick Healer '(4) - Req: CON 16 - You recover from injuries in half the time other people do. This effect is cumulative with any other effects that reduce recovery time; you are simply an amazing patient. *'Strong Back' (1) - Req: STR 12 - You gain a +10% modifier to actions involving lifting or carrying heavy weight. You’re a natural hauler. *'Strong Lungs' (3) - Req: Swim 60% - You are practiced at holding your breath for long periods of time. When rolling to resist suffocation, you add 20% to the target of your rolls, even including the ‘floor’ of rolling against CON - your ‘floor’ is instead CON+20. *'Stunt Driver' (3) - Req: DEX 14 - You can drive a vehicle and perform an unrelated action in the same turn. Drive rolls may still be necessary for dangerous maneuvers or situations. *'Toxin Resistance' (2) - Req: CON 14 - You gain +20% to rolls to resist the effects of drugs, poisons, and toxins. This includes beneficial effects. *'Weaponry Dodge' (1) - Req: STR 12 and 25% in a hand weapon skill - When rolling to Parry, if you are doing so with your weapon, add 10% to the roll. Social Merits *'Allies '(1-5) - Allies are willing to help your character from time to time. For whatever reason, these contacts owe you favours, or you have some other hold on them - like mutual membership in a society. Declare the pool of Allies that you have when you buy this merit, as each form of Allies applies to only one faction, such as a gang, or the police, or the Guardian Angels. Remember that Allies are not robots and have their own lives and needs - every alliance is a two-way relationship. *'Barfly '(1) - Regardless of your location, you can identify the hottest social scene in town and usually make your way in with no problem. *'Contacts' (1-5) - Each rank of Contacts represents one arena or circle in which you have contacts and informants. At 3, for example, you might have hackers, couriers, and detectives who pass you info. Gaining information from them may still require the expenditure of resources or a roll for negotiation, depending on the strength of relationship between you and your contacts; the merit itself merely provides access. *'Fame' (1-3) - You’re famous, for whatever reason. Each rank provides a +15% increase to any and all rolls in which your celebrity status could potentially be an advantage. Of course, each rank also makes it far more likely you’ll be recognized wherever you go. *'Inspiring' (4) - You can rally others in times of distress. Once per session, you can roll Persuade to restore 1 Willpower to all allies in earshot. This does not restore Willpower to you, and cannot affect the same people more than once per day. *'Mentor' (1-5) - You have a mentor and advisor. The rating in this merit directly represents your mentor’s relative power, knowledge and experience. Usually, the mentor will only offer advice; sometimes, they’ll open doors for you (often in many ways), but bear in mind most mentor types will give up in disgust if you constantly seek aid. Of course, any mentor probably has their own agenda for their pupil. Better to not disappoint them. *'Resources' (1-5) - You have resources independent of the investigator starting income statistic; this merit represents relatively stable assets that can be drawn on in a pinch - savings and the like. You will usually need to visit a bank or Western Union branch to access this money. Each rank of this merit expresses two sums - lower and upper boundaries. You can always access up to your lower boundary without influencing this sum; the upper boundary is the net worth of all of these assets - to access that money would be to sacrifice this merit entirely. #$500 per month or so; $1000 maximum. #$1000 per month or so; $5000 maximum. #$2000 per month or so; $10,000 maximum. #$10,000 per month or so; $500,000 maximum. #$50,000 per month or so; $5,000,000 maximum. *'Retainer '(1-5) - You have an assistant, aide, indentured servant or fanatical follower on whom you can rely. The ranking of this merit indicates the training, capability, or flexibility of this assistant: one rank indicates a child, madman, or automaton; two indicate an ordinary person; three, a capable employee with a range of skills and training; four, a valued and irreplaceable assistant; five, a truly extraordinary individual. You need never roll to get results from your aide; so long as you treat them well, they do as they’re told. Of course, if injured or killed, your aide is unavailable or gone. That’s the trouble with good help. *'Status' (1-5) - You have standing, credentials, or authority within a group, company, or social body. Your position may be official, or you might simply be honored by that group and therefore accorded a degree of authority. Perhaps you’re a chief of police, an officer in the military, or just a nurse at a hospital. You must indicate, per form of Status, with whom that status exists. Status represents the privileges and liberties that you can take within the confines and definitions of that group. Unless you have Status (Police) 5, for example, you will be stopped from directly releasing prisoners - and even with it, you’ll still have to explain the situation and maybe do some paperwork. Status does not automatically get you results, most of the time; it simply opens the doors for you to take means outside of those available to most. *'Striking Looks '(2 or 4) - You are exceptionally attractive by modern standards. For two, you get a +15% modifier to any rolls in which your looks benefit your social interactions; For four, +30%. Of course, being so noticeable means you will be noticed. Vampire: The Requiem Haven '(Location: 1-5, Size: 1-5, Security: 1-5) '''Herd '(1-5) - lol should this even be available Ghouls *'''Inherited Ghoul (2) - You used to be a ghoul in service to another regnant, passed down to your current master. The intimate relationship you shared with your previous regnant left you with information that could be extremely valuable to others. Available at character creation only. *'Regnant '(Power: 1-5, Favor: 1-5, Trust: 1-5) - Your relationship with your regnant goes beyond the simple master-servant boundary; you can rely on your regnant to provide information, extra Vitae, equipment, or even sometimes to personally intervene on your behalf. Conversations between you and your regnant are genuine interpersonal dialog rather than the dispensation of orders, and the regnant may turn to you for companionship. Of course, you are not an equal to your regnant; you just also are not a lowly servant. *'Sexualized' (2) - Something has changed in you since you began taking on Vitae, leaving you with a tangible undercurrent of sexual power and experience that others cannot ignore. While it bears no relation whatsoever to your physical appearance, increase APP by 2 when attempting to intimidate, seduce, or distract others, with conditional modifiers of up to 15% based on your appeal and approach to any relevant skill rolls. This is as much a drawback as it is a merit. *'Source Sympathy' (3) - You have a psychic, emotional connection to your regnant similar to the blood sympathy shared between vampires. This emotional connection can also betray the location of either party. *'Staff' (1-5) - You have official command over a staff of employees. These people are mundane mortals, but they are professionally trained and capable of taking on a host of roles. *'Unobtrusive' (3) - Req: Hide 50% - You perform your duties to your regnant with such purpose that vampires usually just don’t notice you; you behave, after all, exactly as a ghoul should. You gain +25% to all rolls to escape notice by vampires so long as you are engaged in a practical task, such as driving, gardening, washing a car, clearing a table, or other drudgery. You also have a modest bonus to resisting the effects of Dominate on your memory. Armory *'EOD' (4) - Req: INT 14 or DEX 14, 60% more in Craft: Demolitions - You are well-versed in handling all types of explosives. You are familiar with techniques in bomb-making, enabling you to identify and arm manufactured ones, as well as create your own. You’ve also been trained in explosive ordnance disposal and are comfortable disarming unfamiliar devices. *'Technophile' (1 or 2) - Through professional experience or hobbyist fanaticism, you are exceptionally knowledgeable with regard to one specific type of equipment, chosen on acquiry of this merit. With one point, its focus is rather narrow: Handguns, Consumer Vehicles, 20th-Century French Military Equipment, etc. With two, its focus may be broader: Melee Weapons, Firearms, Vehicles, 20th-Century Military Equipment. You essentially may make a KNOW roll to know virtually everything about an object fitting your field of specialty. Fighting Style Merits ...are on their own page. Flaws You are flawed. You have up to 7 points which you can spend toward flaws, and each point you spend in flaws gives you an extra point which can be spent toward merits above and beyond the initial 7 points allocated for merits. You are not required to take any flaws, they are optional methods to round out your character. Any Merit may be taken inversely as a flaw. If a merit ordinarily gives +5 to sitting in chairs and costs one point, you can instead take it as a one point flaw which gives you -5 to sitting in chairs. Speak to the Keeper about alternate options if you have something else in mind than what you can find here. Category:CoC Conversion Rules